Israeli troops kill Palestinians

Al Jazeera, July 10, 2008

Israeli soldiers keeping a vigil over Palestinians [File Photo: AFP] Israeli security forces have shot and killed a Hamas member who tried to escape arrest near the occupied West Bank town of Jenin, the Israeli army says. Another Palestinian was shot and killed along the border in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, officials said. "The operative, Talal Sa'ad Talal Abed, was initially critically wounded and received medical treatment at the scene, but died on the way to a hospital" after the shooting on Wednesday, the Israeli army statement said. "Abed, 32, a resident of Kafr Dan, was a member of Hamas's terror infrastructure in the village, an infrastructure that attempted to dispatch a suicide bomber into Israel," it said. "After the failed attempt, cell members were arrested by Palestinian security forces. Despite this, the group continued to be involved in terror, and had been planning an imminent terror attack." 'Guidance and directions' The statement said the cell received "guidance and directions from terrorist leaders" in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Speaking about the second shooting, an Israeli army spokesman told the AFP news agency: "At around 3 o'clock an army force identified a suspicious person crossing the fence from Gaza into Israel near Kissufim. "The force called on him to stop and fired warning shots but he did not stop and the soldiers fired at him and killed him. When they approached his body they saw he was unarmed." The spokesman added that there had been several attempts by Palestinian militants to plant bombs in the border area. The head of Gaza emergency services, Muawiya Hassanin, confirmed that a Palestinian was shot and killed in the Kissufim area. The killings are the first fatalities since a truce went into effect three weeks ago, officials said.